Almost halfway home, a look at the Nationals numbers

After their only off day of the spring, the Nationals stand at 2-12, a record they believe means pretty much nothing. The Nationals are saying March matters only in terms of getting players in shape and making sure the players who are going to head north as major leaguers are ready for the season.

The Nationals are playing 31 games this spring, so they'll be about halfway through after tonight. With 17 games left, why not look at how the players most likely to comprise the opening day team are faring?

What's that? The ridiculously small size, you say? That was a rhetorical question. I'm going to show the stats, anyway. Hitters are average/on-base/slugging, and pitchers are ERA/WHIP.

*I had a difficult time guessing the last bench spot. Roger Bernadina could get it as well, but the Nationals brass didn't mention his name much when they released Elijah Dukes and that would give them a glut of outfielders. Chris Duncan (.120/.267/.120) would seemingly be a better bat than Bruntlett, but he doesn't look anywhere near ready to contribute to a major league team.

Wow, that's still a pretty lousy team. I haven't seen anything that indicates an upgrade over last year. The Nats are going to be awful for several more years while they rebuild the farm system. Even that may be a massive crap shoot.

But wait a minute, according to Mr. Rizzo, he did everything he set out to do this offseason. He went out and got ONE starting pitcher, which is all we needed according to him, and um what else....oh yea, a closer from the Pittsburgh Pirates, which tells you all you need to know about that......and a 100-year old catcher.
He said that was all the Nats needed. And he was very proud of himeself.
Uh yea--whatever.
Like I said, I'll be at the Dodger series in late April, while theres still an illusion of a season goin on.

In the end, Rizzo may not have done enough to get this team out of the cellar.

But let's at least see what these guys can do together for a couple of months in regular season games before games before coming to that conclusion.

For this team to be decent, Morgan is going to have to set the table for the offense, Marquis will have to be a solid a sub 4.50 ERA starter, and Capps/Bruney/Storen will have to hold the late innning leads when they have them.

The spring stats so far say none of those things will happen. But let's see when the games count.

So, back to Halfstreet's comment a few posts back (@1a: a less posts back?) about Olson being done if he can't hit the low 90s:
If that's the case, and since they haven't pattersoned him yet, then they probably bring him north anyway and let him torch a few starts, at least, before cutting him, either literally or figuratively.
Whom do they bring up in his place, hmmm?

Hapster, from your keyboard to the baseball gods' ears, but frankly, this has 60-something wins written all over it. Even if Wang comes back strang. Even if Strasburg comes up in late May and starts 15-20 games.

See, the thing is, these guys need to play together. A lot. More than most teams whose core players have been playing together for years (cough...phillies...cough).

There are a lot of new key guys who may be great, but still need to gel (jell?) *together* to face this tough April schedule.

Starting Monday, the key players need to play in every game.

Also, I really, really, really want Willie Harris to start in RF. I've seen it everywhere on the pros and cons. Maxwell good defense, shaky bat. Bernadina hits ok, not great arm. Willie has both the bat and the defense. Just do it.

Adam - Is there a date coming up soon with regards to Scott Olsen that will commit the Nat's to pay his 2010 salary?
I had thought there was a date (April 1?) where they could release him and save some significant money.

Hapster, I don't disagree with you, but I think the issue is more with the Lerners than with Rizzo. I think he's very limited in what he can do (financially) and that, more than anything else, is why our off-season was what it was.

And since this extended to our 2009 draft as well, this is something we're going to continue being hampered by for years to come.

Still think they will option Olsen to Harrisburg, starting off in Florida where its warmer and safer for his reconstructed shoulder. Getting in some rehab starts in both places.

I just don't see them taking Olsen north when they have options. Unless they plan on giving him "special treatment" like they did Dukes. He is not ready and should not go north period. And for that matter neither should Chico.

That is unless Rizzo continues to run this team like a travesty which is what has been happening for the past 2 years.

Ok this is no longer Bowden. Bowden didn't sign Kennedy instead of Hudson so the team could save a couple dollars. Bowden didn't miss out on Chapman so the team could save a couple dollars. Bowden didn't go out and sign ONE--that's ONE mediocre starting pitcher for a staff that needs FIVE starting pitchers.
This is ridiculous. This team is going to lose as many games this year as last.

A better way to evaluate pitchers with so few innings would be to categorize each appearance with a letter grade. I believe Storen has had one disaster game but the others have been solid.

Strasburg's final numbers in Arizona fall ball were nothing to shout about but every start but one disaster was very strong. I think we could all live with one clunker for every four solid starts. At least we could right now.

You can talk all you want about Maxwell and Harris etc. Do you think that even matters? Seriously. Do you?
The fact that we're even having a silly discussion about that at this point shows how imbicilic the Nats situation is.

Hopefully Guzman gets off to a hot start, some contender's shortstop goes down for the year, so we can trade him and open up the spot for Desmond to make his own. The Nats would probably have to pick up most of his contract but they were going to have to pay him 8mil one way or the other.

Woah. Hold up a sec. nobody knew the Cards were going to offer 30mil for Chapman. conventional wisdowm was thta he was going to go ~20m or so, and the Lerners ponied up 25m. 30m is seen as crazy numbers...

If Bernadina didn't break his ankle in 2009, he would have stayed on the 25 man the entire year. Maxwell was sent down to AAA for his lack of production in 2009---kind of like we are seeing here in Spring Training.

How on earth did the penny pinching Lerners come up with the bread to buy this team? And more importantly-- why? Why did they buy the team if they didn't want to spend a buck to make it work? Why waste their time and ours?

This is obviously why the Lerners and Kasten kept Bowden on for so long. He was so wacky, he was the perfect target to deflect any criticism that came at them. It was all Bowden's fault not Stank and not the cheapskats. But now who is the focus on when the same penny pinching ways continue and this team looks just as awful if not moreso than last years sorry squad? Rizzo is just the fallguy. It's Stanky and the Lerners as usual pulling or refusing to pull any strings. This is a sorry lot.

Adam - Is there a date coming up soon with regards to Scott Olsen that will commit the Nat's to pay his 2010 salary?
I had thought there was a date (April 1?) where they could release him and save some significant money.

This is really amazing. 2 weeks before opening day and only 2 of the Nats 5 starting pitching spots are accounted for. And of those 2, the ace is a 4+ to 5+ ERA guy. Of the 3 openings, 1 guy can't hit 90 on the radar, one guy should be retired and then theres the final spot to be taken by a rookie who will last about a month I'm guessing.
Oh well who is next year's Bryce Harper?
And just to imagine, the Nats coulda been looking at bringing up Chapman and Strasburg together in June along with Wang.

Dove: I hear ya on the frustration, I really do. I believe that "retirement of debt" has been on the Lerner family CD (the musical one, not the financial one...) and they play to play that tune for a while. Maybe some other ownership group can come by and make the proverbial "offer that they can't refuse" and purchase the club.

BTW, does anyone else worry about Capps? He was atrocious last year, but since he's a good guy and good teammate everyone chalked that up to bad luck. Well, he's been atrocious here also. Bruney should close, in my book, Capps' big contract be danged.

Who, pray tell, was on the market this Winter that was really worth breaking the bank over, pitching-wise? It was thin, nothin' we could do about it. Next Winter will be more stocked. Happy thought: Maybe by then we won't need to troll the FA market for SPs.

>>Who, pray tell, was on the market this Winter that was really worth breaking the bank over, pitching-wise? Posted by: thelonghaul

Not breaking the bank over, but Garland and Wolf were both available for pretty reasonable numbers. And we coulda used both of em. Oh btw Chapman was worth breaking the bank over and not coming in a lame 2nd with a we tried wah wah wah.

Hey Gang.....well, I can always count on Hawk(dove) and Peri to cut the sugar off my coating. Eternally optimistic I may be, but that 1st team '05...they probably kick sand in our face.
And jeez, you hit the nail, Hawk. Why DID the Slow Lerners buy this team-for the real estate bonanza around the park? Hmmm, that ain't workin'....'course, having a less than hideous team MIGHT help the bottom line, too.
Oh well-I might be close to the edge but mebbe this team PLAYS with the edge Frank and the gang brought in '05...and we still get 80+ wins......
Go Nats!!!